:: Brinna's ::

:: Thursday, July 14, 2005 ::
:: finally, some results! ::

Well here I am! Back from nowhere. I'm sure everyone will love this post.

First! Here I am as big as I got.


Here's Alice:


Look at all that hair! My mom's kids were always bald. And why is it so dark? Even my hubby was blond as a kid...

Me, postpartum...


And Alice in her going home outfit, which she was too small for despite being 7 lb and the tag saying 'up to 7 lb'.


Well, here's the birth story: I was 41 weeks to the day, and they'd scheduled an induction. Turns out I was in early labor when I went in, at 8am. They still decided to use the gel, though, because the baby's heartbeat wasn't accelerating with movement. It worked to speed up my labor, and I was lucky enough to get the only room that had its own hot tub. I used that all day, but unfortunately I wasn't really progressing past 4 cm. They put me on the monitor for a bit around 9pm or so, and the contractions were a whole lot worse out of the tub. I couldn't really relax between them. Then my water broke and I dilated from 4 to 8 cm in an hour. Too much for my own body to handle...I was having series of contractions, 5 really strong ones on top of each other and then about a minute or two inbetween. They decided to use Pitocin to try and 'regulate' them, and that actually made the contractions less intense. Pretty bizarre. I still had to get an epidural though, because of how fast my labor was suddenly going, and because after the pitocin I couldn't use the hot tub. Also, my blood pressure had shot up. After the epidural it was a lot easier to deal with the contractions. I'd gotten a low dose, so I could still feel a lot. It took only about one more hour and I was fully dialated. I had to wait to push though because they were concerned that I might have this disorder? condition? where if you start pushing with high blood pressure, you get seizures. Fortunately I didn't and so at 12:45am I had my new baby. She weighed 7 lb, 11 oz, and was nearly 21 in. long. It turned out the cord was wrapped around her feet and legs twice, and I'd guess that's why she wasn't moving in me. The midwife said she'd never seen it before.

Anyway, she's doing really well, took to nursing right away...I'm feeling really well too, my only problem is swelling. I'll probably even go to church on Sunday!

:: Brinna 5:20 PM [+] ::
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